Brand

New ideas for a new service

The business consultancy was adding a new service line, one that had the opportunity to bring in work for the rest of the firm. But how to market the new offering and differentiate it, not just from what exists already, but competitors’ offerings, too?

The solution was to use the existing to leverage the new. Rather than an announcement and a lavish party that left little more than a big bill and even bigger hangovers, the launch was considered strategically. First, all the business development tools were created so the partners had everything they needed ahead of time.

Then a launch was planned with a hand-picked guest list of clients (existing and potential) that would show clearly how well positioned the firm was. Instead of just drinks and speeches, a highly informative event was crafted with a panel of influential people as well as the firm’s experts. The event tackled a topic everyone in the industry would like answers on.

After the event the follow-up business development plan kicked in – first with strategic communications that reconnected with those who came to the event and showed those who didn’t what they missed. This was followed by a carefully orchestrated program of strategic meetings with well-informed agendas and quality thought leadership shared via social media that kept people engaged. The new service line was soon feeding work into the existing practice areas.

Personal brand vs. firm brand

The firm leadership knew the importance of the personal brand and the need for partners to have an individual presence in the marketplace and were worried that some partners were doing this at the expense of the firm’s overall brand. They wanted to strengthen the firm’s public image as well as that of individual experts and needed help to find balance between the personal brands of their partners and consistency with the firm’s brand.

The solution was to work with the partners as a group to clearly identify and articulate the firm’s brand and how this should be used going to market. Once this was shared and understood, it was possible to work with each partner to create a personal plan that included key messaging, a content plan and individual coaching. This created not only effective messaging for the firm, but injected enormous confidence into its partnership that saw people achieving more individually and together.

How to sell different services consistently

The accounting firm realised its partners needed to be able to differentiate its practice areas in the market, but still send a consistent message about the firm as a whole. The partners, although excellent at their work, needed help with what to say about their business when speaking with clients.

The solution was a series of workshops with partners and senior staff to distil the key value each practice area provided to clients. This resulted in succinct key messages for each practice area to use to present a consistent face to the market and easily explain the value of each practice area. The messages were used as a basis for conversations and pitches and were a springboard for other marketing activity. The clarity and confidence had a significant positive impact on winning work.

New Ownership, new values

The firm was taken over by a new global parent company, which meant the firm moved from family ownership to shareholders.

Overnight everything changed – ownership structure, strategic objectives, and especially the way of operating. The new ‘top down’ approach resonated badly with a staff used to being involved in operations and decision-making and who had enjoyed the family culture.

The new owners feared losing staff and productivity, but knew the firm had to adjust to being part of a global entity.

The solution was working with the firm staff to develop a new set of values for the firm that aligned the two cultures. Through a series of workshops the staff and the new leadership took the global firm’s values, reward and recognition structure, and policies and adapted them to suit their firm and its people.

The workshop process was valuable in itself, as the two parties came to understand each other. The outcome was a new set of values that helped the business contribute meaningfully to the parent company and to feel it belongs.